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- free your true Self and reduce false-self wounds |
Mental Illness often Begins in Childhood
Half of all cases start by age 14,
researchers say
the Associated Press on MSNBC Web News,
6/6/05 |
 |
 The Web
address of this article is
http://sfhelp.org/gwc/news/MI_by_14.htm
This recent research finding (reprinted verbatim) seems to support
several main premises in this divorce-prevention Web site. I offer perspective on this
report at the end. The links
in this page are mine, and will open an informational popup or a new
browser page - so please accept popups from this non-profit site, or
disable your browser's popup blocker. Before continuing, reflect -
why
are you reading this: what do you
- Peter Gerlach, MSW
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CHICAGO - Most
mental illness hits early in life, with half of all cases starting by
age 14, a survey of near-ly 10,000 U.S. adults found.
Many cases begin with mild, easy-to-dismiss symptoms such as low-level
anxiousness or persistent shy-ness, but left untreated, they can quickly
escalate into severe
disabling phobias or clinical an-xiety,
said Ronald Kessler, a Harvard Medical School researcher involved in the
study.
That so many cases begin in people so young -
three-fourths start by age
24 - “is just staggering,” and underscores the need for better efforts at
early detection and treatment, Kessler said.
“These disorders have really become the chronic disorders of young
people in America,” said Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National
Institute of Mental Health, which helped fund the research.
The findings, published in the June issue of Archives of General
Psychiatry, were based on face-to-face interviews conducted with people
ages 18 and older in 2001 through 2003.
The new figures also show that the prevalence of mental illness
nationwide has stabilized for the first time since the end of World War
II, Kessler said.
About 46 percent of people surveyed said they had experienced a mental
illness at some point in their lives, and about 26 percent said they had
within the previous year - rates similar to those reported in a 1994
version of the survey. Before the earlier survey, rates had steadily
increased since the mid-1940s, Kessler said.
The previous increase was probably at least partly due to better
detection and awareness, Kessler said.
The overall prevalence rate is probably an underestimate because the
study included only English-speaking adults and excluded rarer illnesses
such as schizophrenia and autism.
Most ailments were mild. Only about one-fifth of those who reported any
mental disorder within the past year had a serious illness, meaning
their daily activities were severely affected.
© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
 Perspective
Note that...
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This article doesn't
define "mental illness," so its conclusions are open to
interpretation;
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Apparently the findings
are based on self-reports, which are highly likely to be
probably in favor of underreporting
the frequency and personal and family impacts of psychological
disturbances.
-
The report sidesteps the
nature-nurture controversy over the possible causes of
"mental illness." It offers an opinion on the scope
and origin
of the problem (national mental illness), but stops short of
diagnosing or proposing how to lower it.
The researchers vaguely promote "early detection and
treatment," rather than
prevention.
-
The language of the report reinforces
the outdated psychoanalytic "medical model" of mental
illness, which implies that psychological disturbances are a
personal
"sickness" rather than a spiritual/psychological condition
and a major symptom of
Most people resist feeling "I'm
sick" or "I
have a disease," which inhibits accurate
discovery, and
psycho-spiritual
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The gist of this research summary indirectly supports
several core premises in this nonprofit Web site: i.e. that
(a) "mental illness" is a symptom of
the pervasive [wounds + unawareness]
and related
which (b) begins in a
child's first five or six years, and (c) is caused by a mix
of genetic
predispositions (nature) + a significantly
environment
(nurture).
Premise: our core "mental illness" problem
is U.S. voters' tacit acceptance of irresponsible child
conception and ineffective parenting (low
family nurturance).
Does this describe you?
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in this nonprofit divorce-prevention site and its related
guidebook focus on (a)
"mental illness" (false-self
wounds), (b) intentionally
over time, and (c)
protecting vulnerable young kids from it. For three practical
options you can tailor to break the expending, lethal [wounds + unawareness]
cycle in your family, region, and nation, see
this.
For more related research summaries, see
this.
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Updated
August 30, 2010
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